Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a component for installation in a process control apparatus, which can be inserted into a fuel cell block, for instance. The component includes two plates disposed parallel to one another. By way of example, process control equipment may also be an electrochemical cell, a mass transfer apparatus, a humidifier, or a condenser.
A fuel cell generally includes an electrically conductive current transmission plate, a cathode, an ion-conducting intermediate layer, an anode, and a further electrically conductive current transmission plate, which are stacked on one another in succession in the form of flat plates and form an electrolyte-electrode unit.
Fuel cells of such construction are known, among other sources from the "Fuel Cell Handbook" by Appelby and Foulkes, New York, 1989; from an article by K. Strasser entitled "Brennstoffzellen fur Elektrotraktion" [Fuel Cells for Electrotraction], in VDI-Berichte No. 912, 1992, pp. 125-145; and from German Published, Prosecuted Application DE-AS 27 29 640, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,317,864. Since the fuel cell can convert chemically bound energy directly into electrical energy, it makes it possible for fuel, such as hydrogen, natural gas, or biogas, to be converted into electrical energy with greater efficiency and less environmental pollution than was possible with previously known conventional internal combustion engines that have an efficiency which is limited by what is known as the Carnot process.
A fuel cell block is made up of alternatingly stacked electrolyte-electrode units, gas chambers, cooling units and pressure cushions.
Seals and possibly spacers are built in between the individual units. The various liquid and gas chambers of a fuel cell block are supplied from axial channels through channels that extend in the plane of the plate through the seals. The axial channels extend at right angles to the plane of the stacked plate-like components of the fuel cell block.
A channel formed by putting together two intermediate layers that have grooves extending in the plane of the plate, was previously used to supply a liquid or gas chamber. The grooves require support in the area of the seals. The function of a component formed of two intermediate layers was defined by the disposition of the grooves even before the intermediate layers were made. It is therefore a disadvantage of such a component that it is impossible to use the component for a different task, that is for supplying a different liquid or gas chamber. Fuel cells with that type of component are known, for instance from German Published, Prosecuted Application DE-AS 19 30 116 and German Published, Prosecuted Application DE-AS 27 29 640, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,317,864. Moreover, a further disadvantage of those components formed of two intermediate layers is that for construction reasons, they are so thick that for many reasons it is disadvantageous to use them in a block of PEM fuel cells, for instance.